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Conferences » Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship

On the Entrepreneurial side of the phrase: We live in entrepreneurial times. From the work demand side, there is increasing proportion of employment within entrepreneurial firms and a slow upward trend in the number of startups. From the work-supply side, younger people of this generation express higher levels of aspiration to start their own businesses or to work within entrepreneurial firms. Increasing globalization and liberalization also mean that the entrepreneurial trends are not only regional or national.

On the Education side: How can we best help younger people become entrepreneurial—either to prepare them for creating their own businesses, or to be entrepreneurial within existing firms, or as freelancing artists, writers, and musicians? If the traditional model of education—students sitting in straight rows of desks and all doing the same work at the same time following the directions of an authority figure—does not prepare students for entrepreneurism, then what should we replace it with?

We also live in a time of dissatisfaction with the dominant forms of education, with many complaints about stagnant or declining outcomes, bureaucratization, demoralization and worse, especially in poorer neighborhoods.

And we live in times of disruptive education technologies—from simple email and online chat to pre-packaged podcasts and video series to robust online MOOCs and more.

Putting all of the above together, how do we answer this question: What should entrepreneurial education look like?

On the Entrepreneurial side of the phrase: We live in entrepreneurial times. From the work demand side, there is increasing proportion of employment within entrepreneurial firms and a slow upward trend in the number of startups. From the work-supply side, younger people of this generation express higher levels of aspiration to start their own businesses or to work within entrepreneurial firms. Increasing globalization and liberalization also mean that the entrepreneurial trends are not only regional or national.

On the Education side: How can we best help younger people become entrepreneurial—either to prepare them for creating their own businesses, or to be entrepreneurial within existing firms, or as freelancing artists, writers, and musicians? If the traditional model of education—students sitting in straight rows of desks and all doing the same work at the same time following the directions of an authority figure—does not prepare students for entrepreneurism, then what should we replace it with?

We also live in a time of dissatisfaction with the dominant forms of education, with many complaints about stagnant or declining outcomes, bureaucratization, demoralization and worse, especially in poorer neighborhoods.

And we live in times of disruptive education technologies—from simple email and online chat to pre-packaged podcasts and video series to robust online MOOCs and more.

Putting all of the above together, how do we answer this question: What should entrepreneurial education look like?

Stephen Hicks gave a talk in June as part of a conference sponsored by Fundación para la Responsabilidad Intelectual, Junior Achievement Argentina, and the John Templeton Foundation. He spoke (in English) on “Cómo las Revoluciones se Ganan o se Pierden,” or “How Revolutions are Won and Lost.”

Kaizen Weekly Review highlights activities of The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship and recent business ethics and entrepreneurship news.Editor: Virginia Murr

The Last Mile May Be First Step for Inmate Entrepreneurs

At California’s San Quentin prison, inmates have the opportunity to participate in the Last Mile, an entrepreneurship course modeled on start-up incubators that take in batches of young companies and provide them with courses, informal advice, and seed investments. Start-up ideas from inmates include a cardiovascular health organization and an e-commerce site for artists in prison. Read the full article here.

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The Open Letter that Stopped a Lucrative Marketing Campaign

On September 19, 2012, Thor Halvorssen, Founder of the Human Rights Foundation, published this open letter to Urban Outfitters in The Huffington Post about its Che Guevara marketing campaign and line of fashion merchandise. The letter is useful as a case study for Business Ethics courses in discussions of marketing using popular political figures, especially those with a record like Guevara’s. Urban Outfitters subsequently decided to drop its Che campaign and fashion line.

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The Morality of Capitalism

Stephen Hicks gave a talk to the Bastiat Society in Panama on the debates over the morality of capitalism, contrasting the positions of Friedrich Hayek, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, and others. Here is the abstract from his lecture.

Note: The Bastiat Society is named for Frédéric Bastiat, the great nineteenth-century liberal public intellectual.

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...A Quirky Interview

In a recent interview with Dan Schneider for Cosmoetica, Hicks covered such themes as the nature of values, art, religion, corporations, and the meaning of life. Other interviewees in the series include Daniel Dennett, Larry Sanger, and Steven Pinker.

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Would More Regulations Curb NCAA Violations?

Shawn Klein is quoted in this article from Coach and Athletic Director magazine examining the use of more regulations to curb NCAA violations. In the article, Klein states: “I don’t know that stricter policies or punishment would be that much more effective, because part of the problem is that there are so many rules and a lot of them are opaque.” Read the full article.

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CEE Guest Speaker Series

Marta Podemska-Mikluch, a visiting professor of Economics at Beloit College and recent Ph.D. graduate from George Mason University, was CEE’s guest speaker for February. She gave a talk to students and professors on “Succession, Elections, and Self-Governance,” focusing on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s “nobles’ democracy” of the 16th century.

On January 7, Dr. Hicks gave a talk to over 40 young business executives at the Instituto de Estudo Empresariais (Institute for the Study of Entrepreneurship) in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Hicks’s lecture focused on “Entrepreneurs as Heroes.” His theme showed that the entrepreneurial commitment to value creation is of profound moral significance. According to Hicks, “Many moral codes emphasize not doing bad things, or praise most those who give away or even take from others. But an entrepreneur is neither a taker nor a giver nor a non-doer — but rather an active doer who creates value and trades with others. So we need an entrepreneurially-based moral code.”

After the lecture, attendees participated in a lively debate centered on Hicks’s lecture.